The Pretenders
by freerangeegghead
Summary: In which two very gifted children have a chance at a second life and learn what it means to be human. Sci-Fi, friendship, angst, drama, maybe adventure. Extreme A/U. Santana Lopez, Brittany Pierce, Rachel Berry, Quinn Fabray


**_Summary: In which two very gifted children have a chance at a second life and learn what it means to be human._**

**_Rating: T (for now), for language and other adult themes._**

**_Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or its characters. Everything else is fair game. Story inspired by a lot of TV shows and movies of this genre. _**

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She had no name.

No one did.

She was only B-093S34612P, a bar code on the upper left side of her chest, near her neck, that the adults scan with a scanner that blinks red whenever she goes to the doctor or goes to any of the numerous other rooms in the building, a code so long she doesn't even remember it and is thankful it's kind of tattooed on her chest so she doesn't have to remember it, or recite it or anything like that because she's pretty sure she'll just forget it anyway. Not that she'd have a hard time remembering it – it's the first thing she sees when she wakes up from her bunk, staring at herself in front of the mirror as she removes her drab, gray sleeping gown and replaces it with the blue gray uniform everyone is required to wear for the rest of the day and night, right up to before they sleep.

Except for that mark on her chest near her neck, she doesn't have any other distinguishing mark.

She has no hair. Her head is kept clean-shaven, so much so that she is indistinguishable from the rest of the other children like herself, except for the mark and the nametag on the left breast of her uniform, which indicates that she is B-093S34612P. But her brows, the small hairs on the back of her neck, on those of her arms and legs indicate that she actually may be blonde, but her hair never grows long enough for her to confirm this.

The only thing that would probably distinguish her is her blue, blue eyes, so different from those of the eyes in the complex. Everything else is ordinary.

B-093S34612P has no friends or family.

She is taught from early on, that she doesn't need them. She is taught not to trust them. She is taught only to trust herself, trust her instincts, trust what she sees – because that can spell the difference between life and death.

B-093S34612P knows this as much. After all, she'd been brought here at a very young age, when she had barely gotten out of her toddler years, when the first "incident" had happened. She'd been made to believe then that she was special, that she had a talent, that she needed to use this talent for the good of the country, that she was a patriot, and she needed to protect Uncle Sam from terrorists.

B-093S34612P doesn't think of the place where she is. The people inside the complex jokingly call it Ant Farm, or just "The Farm" or just "Farm City".

She likes calling it "The Farm" because it makes her think of animals and fur and noise and warmth and everything else, because truthfully, "The Farm" is a massive, complicated complex of floors upon floors upon floors of rooms one below the other, corridors snaking around so confusingly one can get lost in the maze if they were not careful. "The Farm" is steel and metal and white or gray walls and though it's a controlled environment where it's never neither cold nor hot, B-093S34612P feels like it is just too cold, like winter, too detached and indifferent, too quiet and businesslike, where serious men and women in white coats, pants and glasses with pens tucked on their upper left front pockets and clipboards on their hands, walk down hurriedly among the endless corridors, where other people – men and women with bulging muscles and no-nonsense faces going around in green uniforms and firearms, men and women in expensive looking dark blue suits and shades, even though the only light underground is the one that comes from the flourescent lights that are turned on at all hours of the day and night and the regular men, women and children like herself, regarded as the civvies who go about their business. And on those rare occasions where B-093S34612P and the other children can go aboveground, it's just a massive box-type buildings covered by large trees, hidden by mountains on one side, a tall, electrified chainlink fence, German Shepherd dogs, soldiers with firearms patrolling the perimeter at all hours of the day and night and beyond the area, desert and sand and dust and nothingness.

B-093S34612P has no name, no family, no friends, but she has a pretty regimented life. A life that she never finds boring. This is because she gets to go to class. She has classes in English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Music, Arts, Foreign Languages (French, Spanish, German, Russian, Korean, Mandarin), she has classes in self-defense, weapons, military tactics, strategies and warfare, military simulations involving computer and video games, paintball guns and a massive place where cardboard cut outs or holograms of people who look Asian or Middle-Eastern pop out at random and they are asked to shoot them. They even have a class on jungle survival and defensive driving – which involves driving a model sedan, a humvee, a tank, a truck. They are taught by no-nonsense people – angry-looking Sgt. Tanaka, Sgt. Beiste and Capt. Sylvester, under the watchful eyes of Dr. Pillsbury and Dr. Howell. Dr. Pillsbury is this strange, red-haired little lady with a high-pitched voice – who always asks them to look at blots on pictures, or makes them draw stuff or talk about their feelings or what dreams they had or have themselves weighed or have wires attached to their heads and objects placed before them, being asked to move them or make them disappear or explode them or report to Dr. Howell, who always takes their blood pressure, or make them take some pills or have their brains or bodies scanned or watch some mindless television with Mr. Ryerson.

There are only a few kids like herself. Ten she counted. Maybe more, because she doesn't see the others.

B-093S34612P doesn't have anything, or anybody, but despite it's massive, impersonal, regimented, seriousness, B-093S34612P feels safe and secure here.

B-093S34612P likes the simplicity of life in The Farm.

B-093S34612P likes how simple her life is here, free from anything and anybody.

But all of that is about to change when a series of events happens to B-093S34612P.

The first thing that happens is that B-093S34612P meets S-094D319L.

S-094D319L had attempted to save her from a fight that was about to break out at the mess hall, because she had sat at the wrong table.

She doesn't even see it when the boy had pushed her tray of food aside, then pulled her up and out of the bench and threw her on the ground. She doesn't even notice how the mess hall has suddenly grown quiet, all the other kids and adults stopping and looking as they watched the scene play out. There were no fights. Ever. Fights were rare. Fights were prohibited. Capt. Sue always told them nobody, nobody was to touch the others, especially right now, when everybody was in training. Meal times were always quiet, boring affairs where everyone had the same tasteless goop of mashed potatoes and that days' ration of protein and other much needed nutrients in the form of chicken, meat, salad, fruits and orange juice. Up until then, nobody had tried to make trouble. Everyone still remembered what had happened the last time one of the kids had made trouble. He had been tackled to the ground, grabbed, chained and dragged away, and no one had seen him ever since. Kids who did that were "decommissioned" she'd been told and though she didn't know what it meant, she can guess that it meant something bad, because no one ever saw him again.

But here she was, being thrown to the ground, defenseless, and there she was, wondering what had happened, as the boy stood, towering over her, eyes full of disapproval, and something akin to anger, and he had tried to attack her then, his stance, the way his jaw moved, the way his eyes shone with determination, the way he had moved his arms and legs, like a wrestler, ready to pounce on her, told her as much, and that terrified her more than anything. And right before he could attack her, she saw him suddenly move sideways, as if an invisible hand had suddenly grabbed him and the look on his face was one of confusion, then terror, before he is wrenched away and slammed against the wall but B-093S34612P is so terrified she doesn't even see most of what's happened, because she finds herself disappearing, out of pure terror, only to re-appear, quick as lightning, in her bunker.

She doesn't see the kid who helps her at the mess hall, and she certainly as hell doesn't see the boy who has made trouble for her – she guesses the boy had been "decommissioned" for misconduct and bad behavior.

But then, when she goes to her military class, she sees it – the dark, stormy, angry eyes, the perpetual smirk, the _rage_...and she sees that this girl is as talented or even more talented than she is, and powerful and brilliant, able to beat the other kids in a pulp, on the mat, or shoot at moving or stationary targets with deadly precision, and once, out on a simulation exercise, kill with precision. Later that day, she finds out that the child's name is S-094D319L. S-094D319L does not acknowledge her, or smile at her, or talk to her – these things are prohibited and prevent everyone from achieving their goals and from completing the mission, but whenever they see each other, she gives S-094D319L a small, grateful smile that the other does not acknowledge. But she knows, from that day forward, that she has perhaps gained a friend.

The second thing that happens to B-093S34612P is that she is woken up in the middle of the night by her bunk shaking and shuddering, and by debris falling all around her, and other kids running around, and loud explosions, and total chaos and their bunk littered with what appears to be mangled bodies and blood and crushed bones and kids and adults jumping up and off them and in the hallway, more of the same, lights above flickering off and on, shouts and screams, wires hanging, the perfect little Farm suddenly in total chaos.

And then it's S-094D319L suddenly appearing before her, in her fatigues, two armalites slung crisscross on her back, handguns on her waistband, a knife in one, surly expression on her face, as she looks at her and demands, "Are you hurt?"

When she shakes her head no in terror, and S-094D319L impatiently waves off a large beam that was about to fall on her, with a wave of a tan hand, she says curtly, "Get dressed, quickly, we don't have time, we have to get out of here, Captain Sue says so."

And B-093S34612P, used to following orders and commands, nods, grabs the first pair of uniforms she can see, grabs the gun and automatic she sees and follows S-094D319L.

They meet Captain Sue and together the three of them quickly make their way through the hallways, and right through an escape hatch by the side and up off the complex where Captain Sue has instructed all the other kids and adults to rendezvous with them.

Just as Captain Sue sees the door overhead, turns it and opens it, to reveal the desert above them, there is another explosion, and the ground shakes horribly and they hear distant screams, forcing Captain Sue to scramble up and out of the hole and pull the two kids after her. Right after she pulls them out, there are a series of explosions and she pushes the kids back and they start running and they barely make it to higher ground before the ground collapses, burying what is left of the complex in and of itself.

And Captain Sue, B-093S34612P and S-094D319L are left standing just a few yards away, staring with disbelief at the underground complex they've all considered home for the past few years.

Captain Sue turns to both of them now and says, "I don't have time to babysit you or memorize your bar codes, so you -" she turns to B-093S34612P and says, "You remind me of a young Britney Spears, you will now be Brittany S. Pierce, and you -" here she turns to S-094D319L, "I don't have any Latino friends nor do I know any nor do I care, from now on, you shall be Santana Lopez." Then she turns to both of them and says, "Memorize your names. Remember them. You are all of you've got. Take care of each other. I don't know what just happened, and I'm mad as hell and I want to know what the fuck is going on – but mark my words, there will be hell to pay. In the meantime, if you freaks use your powers you will both be decommissioned, if you call attention to yourself, you will be decommissioned, if you so much as laugh, talk, breathe, without my say-so, you will be decommissioned. But most of all, we are a team now, we are a unit, and if you so much as betray the other, or get us all in trouble, you will be decommissioned. Got that?"

B-093S34612P, now Brittany Pierce and S-094D319L, now Santana Lopez, both nod, fearful of Captain Sue's wrath and of being decommissioned.

"Alright then, march!" Capt. Sue orders both kids and the kids straighten up and follow Capt. Sue in the dark, desert night. "And for god's sake, will you both act like you're kids and not some automatons or something?" She doesn't understand what Capt. Sue says after that, but she mutters, "Freaky, super soldier mutant babies. _Ugh_."

And that was the third thing that happened.

B-093S34612P finally got a name.

B-093S34612P is now Brittany Pierce.

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**_A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing. Interested? Want this story to continue? Let me know in the reviews page. I know I owe some readers an update on some of the other ongoing fics, but rest assured they will be updated as soon as possible. Cheers._**


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